Category: News

The Department of Classics at the University of California, Santa Barbara, invites applications for a one-year, generalist part-time lecturer position for the 2017-2018 academic year. Responsibilities include teaching 5 small undergraduate lecture courses.

Minimum qualifications: a Ph.D. in Classics or a comparable degree (including Comparative Literature/Classics). Preferred qualifications: experience in teaching, or being a teaching assistant on, lecture courses in translation. The Department is especially interested in candidates who can contribute to the diversity and excellence of the academic community through research, teaching, and service. For information on our department please visit our website: http://www.classics.ucsb.edu/

To ensure full consideration, please submit a cover letter, curriculum vitae, three letters of reference, and a syllabus for a course on Humor and Laughter in the Classical World (syllabus should be designed for a class that will consist of 40 undergraduates and deal with texts in translation) to UC Recruit at https://recruit.ap.ucsb.edu/apply/JPF01057 Letters of recommendation must be confidential. Please have your referees upload them directly through UC Recruit at https://recruit.ap.ucsb.edu/reference.

Apply by August 27th, 2017 for primary consideration. Inquiries about the position may be directed to Helen Morales, Chair of the Department of Classics at hmorales@classics.ucsb.edu

The University of California is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

This year’s eyebrow-raising, jaw-dropping American electoral campaign has evoked in some observers the memory of the ancient Roman Republic, especially as it neared its bloody end. Commentators have drawn parallels between Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and Julius Caesar. That would be an insult – to Caesar. Can anyone imagine in Mr. Trump’s mouth the statesmanlike arguments Caesar is supposed to have used to try to convince the Roman Senate not to give in to anger and fear and inflict capital punishment illegally on Roman citizens? The hallmark of Mr. Trump’s campaign (at least until other problems emerged recently) has been the sheer anger it has exuded (and incited). So a more promising analogy from Roman history might therefore be the so-called popularis – roughly, ‘populist’ – ‘demagogues’ of the Late Republic.

Myths are stories of special importance to a community, which hold that community together by expressing shared values and ideals. In Fall 2015, students in Classics 40, Greek Mythology, were invited to adapt a Greek myth to articulate what Isla Vista means to them. In these videos, three students describe their projects and explain how it captures something truly meaningful about Isla Vista.

Meet Chelsea Brandwein, a UCSB Classics major from Santa Monica, CA. In this video, Chelsea shares her thoughts about the major and about one of her favorite courses, “Classics 170: Pompeii,” taught by Prof. Brice Erickson.

Emilio Capettini received both his BA and MA equivalents from the University of Pisa. He will finish his Ph.D. this May at Princeton University when he submits his dissertation entitled “An Improbable Symphony: Genealogy, Paternity and Identity in Heliodorus’ Aethiopica.”

He published his first article, “La ‘vera’ Andromaca: Eur. Tro. 731-732,” in the prestigious Italian journal Materiali e discussioni per l’analisi dei testi classici in 2007, the same year as he completed his undergraduate degree. His second article, “Eros’ Attack on κτήματα: A Note on Soph. Ant. 782,” is forthcoming in Classical Quarterly. His wide-ranging research interests are in the Greek and Latin novel, Greek epic poetry, Greek tragedy, and Classical Reception Studies.

His appointment is an exciting addition to existing departmental strengths in tragedy, the novel, and reception.

We are delighted to announce the publication of a special volume of Ramus:New Essays on Homer: Language, Violence, and Agency edited by Profs. Sara Lindheim and Helen Morales. The book had its roots in a conference organized by the editors at UCSB in 2011 and contains specially commissioned essays on the Iliad and Odyssey. It presents cutting-edge literary criticism on Homer.

Visit the conference website for submission guidelines, registration information, and other news. The deadline for submission of abstracts is December 1, 2014. Professor Robin Osborne (King’s College, Cambridge) will deliver the keynote address, as Argyropoulos Lecturer in Hellenic Studies for 2015.